Days wasn't focused on a younger set in 2009. It was focused then on the same people it's focused on now.

Yeah, it was.

They made Arianna/Brady/Nicole/EJ/Sami/Rafe the center of the show and then formed a really good potential quad in Nathan/Stephanie/Philip/Melanie. They also had Lucas/Chloe/Dan and were building something with Will/Mia/Chad. The show was skewing younger. The vets were no longer being represented as the top tier group. True, Bo/hope/John/Marlena/Steve/Kayla had been backburnered alot in recent years but they were still being touted as the A players. They were no longer being represented as such as 4 of them were fired and the two leftover were pushed to the backburner. Hence, the show went in a younger direction. True, the Sami/Rafe/Nicole/EJ grouping isn't exactly very young but it's younger than the vet grouping of Bo/Hope/Marlena/John and being represented as such.

It doesn't matter anyway. It's all about the STORY. It doesn't matter who is on every day or who keeps getting the same material. If the story is good, it will work. If the story blows chunks, it won't.

I don't see how the age of the cast is any different now except that the "young" people have aged. I agree that it's the story that makes a difference, but trying to say the show was skewin younger then is false, IMO. The show is still focusing on the same characters only they've swapped one twenty something group for an even crappier twenty something group. And the vets weren't getting a whole heck of a lot of focus prior to 2009 anyway. That focus dropped around 2005-2006.